Characterizing dietary and exercise management practices and inflammatory biomarkers in a population of recreationally managed horses in Pennsylvania.

BACKGROUND

Horses evolved as slow-moving grazers for 30 to 40 million years, but domesticated horses often consume greater quantities of grains and concentrates to foster athleticism. The changes in diet and exercise are hypothesized to increase the risk of chronic inflammatory conditions.

AIMS/

OBJECTIVE

The objective was to characterize relationships between dietary and exercise management practices and acute phase proteins (APPs) in horses.

METHODS

We collected body condition scores, blood samples, and surveys of the horse management practices from 144 horses. Plasma serum amyloid A (SAA), C-reactive protein (CRP), and haptoglobin (Hp) were measured to investigate the relationship between management practices and APPs. Kruskal Wallis and post-hoc Dunn's tests were used, with significance set at P ≤ 0.05.

RESULTS

Data are presented as unit, median, interquartile range, and Kruskal-Wallis derived p-value, all separated by commas. The independent variables within parentheses are separated by semicolon(s). Serum amyloid A concentrations increased as exercise intensity increased from light to moderate to heavy, based on the 2007 National Research Council classifications (mg/L; 0.727, 0.312; 0.918, 0.642; 1.597, 0.559; P = 0.044). Horses offered cereal grain(s) had lower Hp (mg/L; 2510, 2530; 2886, 1976; P = 0.040). Horses offered hay had lower CRP (mg/L; 7.14, 8.04; 11.13, 16.66; P = 0.020). Exercised horses had higher concentrate (kg/day; 1.05, 2.2; 0.15, 1.90; P = 0.050) and total recorded diet weights (kg/day; 3.0, 2.21; 1.80, 4.20; P = 0.006) than those that were not exercised.

CONCLUSIONS

Common dietary and exercise management practices may alter APPs in horses.